I’ve stopped eating tomatoes for health reasons, but I like cooking Italian food. Are there any alternatives to tomatoes in dishes such as lasagne and caponata?
Charles, North Yorkshire
According to a study by the Technical University of Munich last year, about 1.5% of the population in northern Europe and up to 16% in Italy are affected by tomato allergies. While this number is relatively small, a life without lasagne and caponata is no life at all. For Joe Trivelli, head chef at the River Cafe, the answer is simple: “Just don’t put them in.” But I won’t clock off early just yet.
Tomatoes were a relatively late addition to Italian cuisine, with pasta sauces and braises coloured red in only the late 16th and 17th century. As the Guardian’s food writer in Rome Rachel Roddy – whose use of the fruit has decreased since moving to Italy – puts it, we need to move away from tomato domination. “So many Italian dishes, such as hunter’s chicken, braised rabbit or oxtail stew, have a pre-tomato version,” she says, “and eight times out of 10, I prefer them.”
Seek out the original versions, then focus on your use of olive oil, garlic, chilli and, if you’re making pasta sauce, the starchy pasta cooking water. Roddy has a few tricks, though, for achieving that umami flavour when tomatoes aren’t in play: “Anchovies, parmesan, porcini and herbs, such as rosemary and sage, can give that meatiness you might otherwise miss.”
Caponata can live quite happily without tomatoes, too, Trivelli says, as long as you balance the other ingredients with soffritto [a mix of finely diced onion, carrot and celery] and “a bit of vinegar” to create that depth and acidity. Look to Rome for inspiration for pastas, salads and braises, Roddy advises: “They’re great with vegetables such as pumpkin, which has a lovely, rich flavour.” Anna Jones took this approach in her recent pizza recipe swapping a tomato base for squash, which had been roasted with olive oil and chilli, then blitzed and loosened with a little vegetable stock.
Lasagne is also within your grasp, Charles. Trivelli’s favourite (tomato or otherwise) is an artichoke version: remove the tough outer leaves, pare away the green flesh from the base of the artichoke and stem, scrape out the hairy choke, then slice, cook and use to layer up between sheets of lasagne, bechamel and cheese.
Slow-cooked red peppers, if you can eat them, give a good base for sauces, stews and spooning over mozzarella or burrata, says Tim Siadatan, chef and co-owner of Padella, a second site of which has just opened in Shoreditch. “Put them on a charcoal grill or barbecue to get a lovely, smoky flavour,” he says, but a gas stove will also work. Cook the peppers until the outsides are nice and blistered, then transfer to a bowl and cover to steam. Once they are cool enough to handle, Siadatan peels off the skin, removes the seeds and finely slices. Then, in a separate pan, he adds “a load of sliced garlic and some dried chilli, and sweats down in olive oil over a low heat until they’re sweet and sticky.” Season with salt and pepper, add a splash of cabernet sauvignon vinegar, some fresh marjoram (if you can’t find any, use basil) and a dollop of mascarpone or creme fraiche, and you’ll have a creamy sauce to wrap around penne.
Alternatively, Siadatan says, “add cooked runner beans cut into inch-long pieces with some mascarpone and basil, and you’ve got a garnish for lamb; or throw in some chickpeas, lentils or other pulses for a stewy vibe.” Life without tomatoes can still be rosy.
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